The styletakers

The style takers

Ashimiu Ajebori aka Gba Feeder, is the new Adewale Ayuba with vocal semblance in the same Fuji music genre. The slight difference is that the Ayuba sing-alike, comes and goes like the unstable electricity power supply synonymous with PHCN to most households across Nigeria.

• DIPP is the one-man Usher and Chris Brown. Dancing? Outstandingly in his music videos. Singing? Unlike Usher & Chris Brown, can anybody remember any of his chorus? Not really.

• Flavour Nabania is weaned on the music of the late highlife maestros Rex Lawson and Osita Osadebe. No argument.

• Saint Janet is the lewd Juju music version of the Kwara State-based indigenous Pankeke music’s unrivalled coochie mama, Iya Laduke.

• Obesere, aka PK First, is the Fuji musicdon’s version of the US-based hip hop rap’s Mack Daddy cum Pimp King the 1st, Luke Campbell. Although Obesere came on the scene before Luke, the two are in a class of their own when it comes to the Go-Go bar and Strip Club narratives.

• Isolate is the new 9ice with similar lyrical and vocal identity.

• T.Code is the falsetto version of LKT whose claim to fame is Olu Maintain’s ‘Yahoozee’ audio and video. Anyway you slice it, LKT’s hybrids of dancehall, hip hop-pop laced with the unmistakeable Fuji vocal inflections without a doubt reminds us of the bassy-voiced singer Alabi Pasuma. All told, Pasuma it was who lowered the entry barrier into the Fuji musicdom for the likes of 9ice, Isolate, LKT, T.Code, Brymo, among others attired in the latest hip hop fashion getups.

• Chuddy K is a Wande Coal copy? Unknown to many music fans, both of them were in the same music group before the Black Diamond crawled out of Mushin and joined the Don Jazzy & D’Banj-led Mo’Hits Records. WC and CK have always flipped similar vocal gymnastics. Case in point is Wande’s debut single “Ololufe” and Chuddy’s debut solemn smash “Slow Slow”. But the stylejacking began when Don Jazzy put more bounce on WC’s ounce, which inspired CK to go gaga crazy on the beat. Verdict: It is never a crime to replicate your friend’s hit template, especially if you once drank garri together and shared one microphone together for close to three years. Stay safe, CK.

• Ayefele? Without fear or favour, borrows this popular hook and that popular tune from this and that artiste. Sentiment apart.

• Niyola is a Tiwa Savage wannabe. Agreed, Niyo’ came on the scene before Teewee. Maybe if she had not signed on EME, she would not have been under the pressure to wrest the Pop Princess tiara from the naturally sassy ‘n’ sultry Teewee, who has perfectly understudied Beyonce to a fault.

• Is Durella a D’Banj copy? The truth is that long before DB Tongolo his way into the epileptic Naija music scene in 2004, Durella had been a cult figure of sorts in the Mushin, Ilupeju, Isolo and Surulere areas of Lagos with the regional hit songs, such as ‘Hustler’, ‘Omo Dudu’ and ‘Why Oh Why’. He cut and released an album in late 1998 with his rap partner, Bondi, under the stagename Durrel and Bondi. Records don’t lie. Industry insiders know this fact. Du was DB’s ears and eyes in Nigeria when DB was in the UK looking to break into the fast-evolving Naija music industry. It can be said without fear or favour that when the going was good, the two vibed off of each other and borrowed from each other; street slangs for upgraded branded swags.’